Research revealed that the house sat in a tightly enclosed yard along with pertinent outbuildings, and that it undoubtedly contained a garden.  From archaeological evidence by infrared photography, by excavation and by study of Preston family documents, it was determined that there were two smokehouses, a distillery, an outer yard, and an inner garden. The exact site of the garden was not found.

 Just as today, the manor house sat within a fenced yard.  The outer yard was for protection and used by grazing animals.  The area between the plantation house and the rebuilt smokehouse  was selected for the demonstration garden, where displays of flowers, herbs and small fruits could be grown. The smokehouse has been reconstructed on its original site. The plant material represents food crops as well as plants used for flavoring, fragrance, healing, weaving and dying.  This garden does not pretend to show an authentic 18th century layout but rather to demonstrate authentic 18th century plants. The central paved area in the garden suggests a work space where soap and candle making, and cloth dying might have taken place.  The drying yard, as many early gardens, had a grass area on which to lay clothes and other textiles for sun bleaching.

The garden is enclosed by a weathered paling fence, typical of the era.  Small fruits such as grapes, strawberries, raspberries, and gooseberries grow along the rear garden fence. Other fence examples on site are the Virginia rail fence around the perimeter of the property and a stockade fence, one of the earliest and most primitive types, made of pointed logs set in the ground.  These fence types were used on the frontier landscape.  The outer yard is a simple landscape with grass and trees, suggesting a yard on which sheep grazed and fowl scratched. Maple trees encircle the yard as they might have in the early history of Smithfield. Toms and Stroubles Creek supplied water with a millrace on the western side of the house.

 Some of the authentic plants in the garden were mentioned in Preston family documents. The family letters from several generations revealed an extensive variety of plant material grown at Greenfield, Smithfield, Solitude and Horseshoe Bottom: included were aloes, barley, bluegrass, buckwheat, cabbage, Carolina pinks, Charlie Rue, clover, corn, Devil’s Bit, flax, grass seed, hemp, horseradish roots, indigo, ironweed, lobelia, New River grass seed, oats, peas, potatoes, rye, timothy, tobacco, turnips, and wheat.  The list includes several varieties of fruit and shade trees: nine varieties of apples, pear, peach, quince, pecans, English walnut, apricots, cherries, plums, Mulberry, and finally, Sugar Maples and locusts.